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Bending rules: the shape of the perceptual generalisation gradient is sensitive to inference rules

Journal

Cognition & Emotion

Volume | Issue number

31 | 7

Pages (from-to)

1444-1452

Number of pages

9

Document type

Article

Faculty

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG)

Institute

Psychology Research Institute (PsyRes)

Abstract

Generalising what is learned about one stimulus to other but perceptually related stimuli is a basic behavioural phenomenon.
We evaluated whether a rule learning mechanism may serve to explain such generalisation. To this end, we assessed whether
inference rules communicated through verbal instructions affect generalisation. Expectancy ratings, but not valence ratings,
proved sensitive to this manipulation. In addition to revealing a role for inference rules in generalisation, our study has
clinical implications as well. More specifically, we argue that targeting inference rules might prove to be an effective strategy
to affect the excessive generalisation that is often observed in psychopathology.

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